Households cities countries and nations have enjoyed great happiness when a single individual has taken heed of the Good and Beautiful. Such people not only liberate themselves they fill those they meet with a free mind.

Could a government dare to set out with happiness as its goal? Now that there are accepted scientific proofs it would be easy to audit the progress of national happiness annually just as we monitor money and GDP.

And of all illumination which human reason can give none is comparable to the discovery of what we are our nature our obligations what happiness we are capable of and what are the means of attaining it.

The secret to true happiness is a combination of low expectations and insensitivity.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.

Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.

Happiness is ideal it is the work of the imagination.

The great nations have always acted like gangsters and the small nations like prostitutes.

Great nations are simply the operating fronts of behind-the-scenes vastly ambitious individuals who had become so effectively powerful because of their ability to remain invisible while operating behind the national scenery.

The essence of America - that which really unites us - is not ethnicity or nationality or religion - it is an idea - and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

When a great team loses through complacency it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat.

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness second their imagination and third their industry.

Mr. Chairman delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America. I do so with humility deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility.

The principles that made this nation a great and powerful leader of the world have not lost their meaning. They never will. We know we can bring this country back. I'm Mitt Romney. I believe in America. And I'm running for president of the United States.

One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able vicariously to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat what's more with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.

If your determination is fixed I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength but perseverance.

An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.

A battle lost or won is easily described understood and appreciated but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection as well as observation to appreciate it.

America's fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers that have paid the ultimate price for this cause as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed.

The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it because they have no imagination.

One of the great strengths of the United States is... we have a very large Christian population - we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.